The invention concerns a valve attachment for filling and draining at least one container with a liquid in an oxygen-poor atmosphere. Moreover, a filling assembly is disclosed that comprises the valve attachment and therefore also enables filling and draining in oxygen-poor environment. Moreover, a filling assembly that comprises the filling device is subject matter of the invention and, finally, the filling and draining method itself that employs the aforementioned devices.
Valves are known in multiple embodiments. They comprise in principle a valve seat as well as a closure part corresponding therewith. By adjustment of the closure part, the flow rate can be regulated, for example.
For filling a container, in particular a bottle, with a liquid that is intended for consumption, in particular a beverage, the liquid is supplied to the container usually by means of a probe head. The problem in this context is that the liquid is exposed to the ambient air with the result of undesirable gas release, gas exchange as well as gas introduction. The same problem occurs also in connection with non-food applications like medicaments or other chemicals.
Filling devices are known which counteract the afore described disadvantages and for this purpose are provided with a valve attachment, i.e., an attachment that comprises a valve, which comprises a pipe at the bottom and a balloon-like body is pulled over it in a seal-tight manner. The opening of this balloon-like body is seal-tightly connected with the pipe in this context. The thus embodied attachment with its pipe and the balloon-like body is inserted from above into the container to be filled. By supply of an expansion medium such as air through the pipe, the balloon-like body is initially inflated so that it fills out the complete interior of the container. In this way, the container becomes void of air. Subsequently, the expansion medium is then removed again from the balloon-like body. At the same time, the liquid is supplied to the interior that is created thereby in the balloon-like body. Finally, the attachment with the pipe and the balloon-like body can be pulled out again.
Moreover, devices are known for draining, for example, a bottle filled with sparkling wine after bottle fermentation. Here, the general principle resides in that the sparkling wine by addition of CO2 is pressed out of the bottle with excess pressure. The use of CO2 is however undesirable because it dissolves in the sparkling wine upon contact therewith.
For this reason, a device for draining a container has been developed that does not exhibit the afore described disadvantages. The constructive configuration of this draining device corresponds substantially to the afore described filling device. With regard to the method sequence, draining differs however from filling. For draining, first the valve attachment with the pipe arranged therein as well as the balloon-like body is again inserted into the container filled with liquid. By supplying an expansion medium through the pipe the balloon-like body is inflated and the liquid contained in the container is then pressed out through an appropriate opening in the valve attachment. When subsequently the expansion medium is again released, the draining device can be pulled out of the container again.
Based on this prior art, the object of the invention is to improve the valve attachment of the aforementioned kind in particular in such a way that it can be employed for filling a container, in particular a bottle, with fluids, sensitive to oxygen of the air or to carbon dioxide, under an atmosphere that is poor in oxygen or poor in CO2 or under a protective gas atmosphere.